


95%

by k_e_i (dhiskey)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, OiKuro Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:40:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27197947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dhiskey/pseuds/k_e_i
Summary: The Soulmate Committee, the governing body set up to regulate technologies to identify potential soulmates, had decided that the minimum age for the compatibility test was seventeen.Kuroo, the coach of the volleyball team in Oikawa's high school, has been expecting a result for nine years.Oikawa tries the test for the first time.
Relationships: Kuroo Tetsurou/Oikawa Tooru
Comments: 11
Kudos: 85





	95%

“Well?” Kuroo began, elbows on his knees and stern air.

Oikawa, rebellious eyes and wrinkled nose, ignored him. He sat stiffly on the wooden chair, stalled in that foolish childlike rather than adolescent pride of his.

That scene was starting to become a classic: the two of them alone in the locker room, after the end of training, the receiving end and the giving part of a lecture.  
The boy's outbursts were more and more frequent, more and more hysterical; Kuroo was a patient, albeit relatively inexperienced, coach but with Oikawa he felt he was dangerously close to having no more weapons at his disposal.

“I may not be a teacher, but I am your coach and I would like to be treated with respect. Answer when I ask you a question.” He tried hard not to let his exasperation out completely, he didn't want to make the player feel like a lost case.  
Ironic, since he most likely was.

“Well _what?_ ” Oikawa snorted stubbornly, crossing his arms over his chest and refusing to look him in the eye.

“You know very well,” Kuroo raised his voice. “You almost slapped Kageyama and if Iwaizumi hadn't been there to stop you rest assured I would have kicked you off the team. Can you know what's wrong with you? You are a skilled player, a smart guy. Help me here, because I just don't understand…”

Brown bangs covered Oikawa's eyes, but his trembling lips betrayed his inner turmoil. If only he had decided to talk, instead of hiding behind the usual facade of irony and insubordination, things would have been easier for everyone.

Damn teenagers and their hormonal disturbances.

Still silence. Stubborn and irritating silence.

“Oikawa-kun, I'm losing my patience. Don't make me warn Sugawara-sensei and ask for an interview with your parents.”

“Then do it! I don’t care!” Oikawa blurted out as soon as he finished speaking, finally raising his head to show him a flaming look and an almost distressed expression.  
It wasn't just his lips that were shaking now.

“Oika–”

“You've already put me on the bench because of that genius of a kouhai, right? So I might as well stop playing, who cares. Indeed, it’s better this way.” He interrupted him like a raging river, filled with regret and anger.

You're finally getting a little naked, Kuroo thought. Envy, selfishness, pettiness; defects that made him human, authentic. He had a heart beating in his chest, like everyone else, and he was a kid with a passion. Kuroo didn't judge him for that, but he'd have to quickly learn to juggle all those emotions, or he'd be overwhelmed.

“Don't be silly, it's insulting towards your teammates who have never been regulars. Not being in the starting rotation does not mean never playing and above all it does not mean being worth less than the others.”

Oikawa let out an almost hysterical giggle, tilting his head to the side.

“You don't deny it, then. I was right. You said it yourself, Kuroo-san, I'm smart.”

He sighed, running a hand through his thick locks and pulling himself together; raising the barriers again.

“I have not decided yet.” The coach informed him.  
It was true, it was not a simple choice. Starting with the Hinata-Kageyama duo, a promising diamond still in the rough, or counting on a shrewd, precise and reliable player like Oikawa? And this was just the tip of the iceberg, there was always an endless series of repercussions and consequences to think about when it came to touching the expectations of a group of teenagers.

“Come on, I was joking! I shouldn't have made that scene, I'll apologize to Tobio-chan again. All right?”

The frivolous smirk that had popped up on Oikawa's lips made Kuroo sigh. He had been faced with an opportunity for an unfiltered, honest conversation, but he had not been ready enough to grasp it.

“Yes, that's fine. But that must not happen again or you're out for real.”

Oikawa nodded. “Can I go now? Or I'll be late for my appointment at the Soulmate Center.”

It took Kuroo a few seconds to focus on the boy's words. It had to be the first time for him, he realized. The Soulmate Committee, the governing body set up to regulate technologies to identify potential soulmates, had decided that the minimum age for the compatibility test was seventeen. His parents had told him about the protests that followed that decision, moved by the belief of many that that age was too early and immature to fully understand the concept of having a soulmate. The Committee, however, remained steadfast in its decision, saying that performing the test at an early age dramatically increased the odds of finding strong compatibility.  
As if the theories were infallible, Kuroo thought sarcastically.

“You can go. And good luck.”

“I won't need it.” Oikawa grinned, rising from his chair and picking up his bag.

“Not even self-esteem, apparently.” Kuroo commented arching an eyebrow.

Oikawa winked at him and sticked his tongue out a little, before leaving the locker room.

  
  


• • •

  
  


“Hey, hey, hey!”

Bokuto answered after half a ring with his usual overwhelming enthusiasm. Even on the phone it was hard not to get affected, but that evening Kuroo was too upset to answer with the usual “oya oya oya”.

“Koutaro, I received the letter. I just saw it in the mailbox, I have it in my hand, still unopened, I called before–”

“Slow down, slow down! I don't understand you. What letter are you talking about?”

“ _The_ letter.” Kuroo answered excitedly, holding the receiver rigidly.

“Oh.”

Yeah, _oh_. The letter he had almost lost hope of receiving. Even now that he was holding it in his hands it seemed impossible, yet the feel of the smooth, glossy paper, the characters printed in more tangible black than ever, the Committee's fiery red crest… it was all real.

“What are you waiting for? Open it, come on!”

“Yes, right.” He answered like a fool, ordering his brain to recover a little more quickly.

From the other end of the phone came a chuckle that was barely held back.

“What the fuck are you laughing at, asshole?”

“I've never seen you so upset, it's almost comical.”

“I didn't make fun of you when you lost it over Tadashi. I have an endless collection of voice messages where you pester me because you thought he wouldn’t like you, because you didn't know how to dress on a first date, because maybe he didn't care about volleyball, because who knows if he's allergic to cats, and will he like tart? And onigiri? And chestnuts? Must I continue?"

“Ok, ok, message received.”

Kuroo couldn't see him, but he was sure Bokuto was blushing. He remembered as if it were yesterday when he received the letter in his senior year of high school. The Committee had identified a potential soulmate with an 80% compatibility, one of the highest.  
He also remembered the pinch of jealousy he had felt, but this was another matter now dead and buried. He was glad that things had gone well between him and Yamaguchi.

“Have you opened it or not? How long is it taking you?” Bokuto urged him, his tone vaguely agitated.

Kuroo put down the pen with which he had torn the envelope, pulling out the sheet it contained with a trembling hand.

“Done.”

“Then? What does it say?”

The sentences seemed blurry, superimposed on each other. Kuroo blinked repeatedly, until he was able to focus on the most important information. The telephone receiver nearly fell out of his hand when he read the last line.

“Koutaro, it says... it says 95%.”

“You're joking, right? Tetsurou, are you kidding me?”

“No...”

“Fuck! It's a very high compatibility. Start thinking about the wedding list because I know that–”

“It says that the other person has already been notified and has agreed to a meeting at the Soulmate Center. Tomorrow.”

“Bro… I don't know what to say. I'm so happy for you that…”

Kuroo smiled, his lips pursing in an expression of affection. Sometimes he lacked the warmth that only Bokuto was able to convey, even when he couldn't find the right words.

“I'm happy too.”

Scared, anxious, impatient, unsure… but happy.

After nine years of waiting, who wouldn't be?

  
  


• • •

  
  


“I'm Kuroo Tetsurou, I have an appointment at 10:00.” He told the receptionist, settling his tie for the tenth time since leaving the house.

The woman smiled at him, with the air of someone used to seeing people on edge passing the automatic glass doors of the building, and after confirming the appointment she invited him to follow her.  
She led him along a bright corridor that on one side overlooked the outer courtyard and on the other was a succession of closed doors. They stopped in front of one of them, perhaps the third or fourth.

“They're waiting for you inside.”

Here we go, he thought. He took a deep breath, braced himself, and placing his hand on the handle he opened the door.

He had spent the night tossing and turning in bed wondering what person he would be in front of the next day, hardly sleeping, but not even in his most remote and unlikely prediction would he have been able to predict what he found on the other side of the door.  
Or, to be precise, _who_ he found.

“Kuroo-san?” Oikawa said incredulously, leaping to his feet with such a hasty motion that he knocked over the chair he was sitting on.

Beside him, still composed but equally surprised, were his parents.  
Of course, Kuroo thought in a split second, first meetings were held in a Soulmate Center in particular situations such as an age difference of more than five years, one being underage, a bond of authority.  
_Or all of them together_.

Kuroo mentally called himself an idiot for not thinking about it.

“Relax, there was definitely a misunderstanding. Mr. and Mrs. Oikawa, I assure you that I have no intention of undertaking a–”

Oikawa had hit him so fast that he hadn't even had a chance to visualize and dodge the punch aimed at his abdomen.

“You are such an asshole!” The boy yelled in a shrill voice, darting past him as he tried to reintroduce air into his lungs.

“Tooru!” His father called him, coming out of the room himself.

Good luck trying to catch him, Kuroo thought to himself, that wretch ran as fast as lightning.

“Kuroo-san, are you okay?” Oikawa's mother asked in a shaky voice, a whisper.

Only then did he realize that he had burst out laughing.

  
  


• • •

  
  


Kuroo arrived at the top of the hill out of breath. Did that prima donna have to escape to the highest point of the city?  
Fortunately, he continued to train daily, or it would have taken twice as long to get up there.

He looked around, inspecting the area. The darkness didn't help, but it didn't take long to spot two familiar silhouettes crouched at the foot of a tree.

“Iwaizumi, thank you.” He said to the more sensible of the two, placing a hand on his shoulder.  
If he hadn't texted their location, he would never have been able to find Oikawa.

The latter looked up sharply at Kuroo, and then addressed a resentful expression to his friend.

“Iwa-chan, you traitor!” He whimpered.

Iwaizumi shook his head, without answering, and got up from the ground, giving way to Kuroo.

“I'll wait for you there.” He specified, making it clear to Oikawa that he was not abandoning him and to Kuroo that he was keeping an eye on him.

Understandable, given the situation.

“Oh, to hell with it. Come on, lecture me and let's get it over with.” Oikawa mumbled as Kuroo came up beside him, legs crossed in the grass and back hunched.

There were a few dry leaves in the boy's hair. Who knows how long he had been sitting under that tree, Kuroo wondered. He probably went there after his melodramatic exit from the Soulmate Center.

His jacket was creased at the shoulders, the tie loosened and the top button of his shirt undone. His elegant shoes were speckled with earth.  
He looked more adult dressed like that.

“Your parents are worried. You're a little too old to run away from home, you know?”

“I do what I want.”

“Mmh, sure. However, you exaggerated.” Kuroo went on, looking at the panorama of multicolored lights in front of him. “I don't know what idea you have in that buggered head of yours but the test results can be wrong. And you can try it again every year, so don't worry. You will find your soulmate.”

All in all Oikawa’s reaction was not strange. In his shoes, he probably wouldn't have been happy too to be confronted with a soulmate nearly ten years older. His pain in the ass coach, too.  
It must have been quite a shock.

“Am I that undesirable, Kuroo-san?”

That question stunned him. “What the hell–”

“Let me rephrase,” Oikawa interrupted him. “Why do you hate me?”

He turned his head to face him, his hair ruffled in the evening breeze and his eyes red and puffy.  


No, he didn't seem so adult after all.

“Oikawa, what the hell are you saying?”

“You treat me worst of all during training, you want to replace me with a first year, you reject the idea that you and I can...” he caught his lower lip between his teeth, looking away and making a frustrated sound.

“I treat you worst of all because you are the one I expect most from, stupid! And I don't want to replace you, I already told you I haven't decided yet.”

“And the last thing I said?” Oikawa pressed him, his voice disillusioned.

Kuroo swallowed. He had deliberately left out that last sentence. That morning, at the Soulmate Center, he had assumed that Oikawa had felt only repulsion at the idea of having him as a soulmate. To say that they had a conflicting relationship was an understatement, not a day went by in which Kuroo did not take him back or in which Oikawa did not stand up to him, half the time out of pure spirit of contradiction.  


It was Oikawa that of the two who hated the other, if anything.

Oikawa hated him.

_Or not?_

“I get it, forget about it.”

“You always think you have the truth in your pocket, don't you? But you're just a know-it-all brat.” Kuroo retorted succinctly, fed up with that attitude.

Oikawa started to open his mouth but he gave him no way to intervene.

“No, now you listen to me. You are an exceptional player, one of the best, and you are not even at your full potential yet. Instead of focusing on others, on geniuses like Kageyama, you should think about yourself, how to improve, how to overcome those who are gifted by nature with commitment, study, technique. Fuck, Oikawa, you have what it takes to go really far and you don't know how angry your silly pity party makes me!”

The boy stared at him with his mouth open, his eyes wide. Perhaps he had gone overboard, but that was what he thought. Oikawa would have been able to shoot himself in the foot if he had continued down that path of self-pity.

“You don't have to feel inferior to anyone. And well, I'm sure if you take the test again next year you will find a soulmate excited about being with you. Despite your smug face.”

They both giggled at those words. The tension in the air eased a little, giving way to a calm, warm silence.

“Maybe I don't want to repeat it, the test.”

“What do you mean?”

“I've already found a soulmate, haven't I? 95% compatibility, an extremely rare percentage.”

“Oikawa...”

“Can you at least think about it?” The boy asked, sniffling.

Kuroo sighed. “On one condition.”

Oikawa looked at him hopefully.

“No more scenes during training.”

He earned himself a raspberry and the promise of a new challenge.

**Author's Note:**

> To be continued? Maybe..?


End file.
